Laser interference lithography has been widely used as an effective and inexpensive technique for the fabrication of uniform nanopatterns and photonic materials on substrates. There are various geometrical configurations of interference lithography (IL) systems, the two major system configurations being the Lloyd's mirror interferometer and the conventional two-beam interferometer, such as a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. A Lloyd's mirror interferometer includes a mirror oriented perpendicular to a substrate stage, where a simple angular rotation of the entire device results in a nanoscale patterning (also referred to as “nanopatterning”) with controlled pattern periodicity. However, the effective pattern coverage area is dependent on the mirror size and the optical coherence length in such a way that the coverage area is usually much less than the size of either. In contrast, a conventional two-beam interference lithography system provides two separate beams which are individually expanded and then recombined directly over the substrate to form interference patterns. Such a system may provide a greater pattern coverage area with less dependency on the optical coherence length. However, the fixed optical path of the conventional two-beam IL system makes it difficult to tune the pattern periodicity, in that it requires the laborious realignment of the entire optical path to vary the pattern period. Additionally, it is necessary to provide a large optical table and a costly high-power laser to provide enough exposure power over the long distance travelled by the expanded beams.